Contribution of the right temporoparietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex to theory of mind in autism: A randomized, sham‐controlled <scp>tDCS</scp> study

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute subjective mental states oneself and others significantly impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A frontal-posterior network regions including ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) temporoparietal junction (TPJ) involved ToM. Previous studies show an underactivation these ASD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) a noninvasive brain method for causally investigating brain-behavior relationships via induction cortical excitability alterations. tDCS, mostly over dorsolateral cortex, has been increasingly applied improving behavioral problems ASD leaving other potentially interesting untouched. Here we investigated contribution vmPFC right TPJ ToM abilities children tDCS pilot study. Sixteen with (mean age = 10.7 ± 1.9) underwent three sessions (1 mA, 20 min) randomized, sham-controlled design. Stimulation protocols included: (a) anodal (b) r-TPJ (c) sham tDCS. were explored during using theory test (TOMT). Our results that activation improved compared both, stimulation. Specifically, precursors (e.g., emotion recognition, perception, imitation) elementary skills first-order state reasoning) by Based on results, could be potential target region reduction symptoms stimulation, which should examined larger detail future studies. Lay Summary infer others, autism. Brain imaging have shown involvement two (ventromedial junction) are underactivated We increased this experiment see how it would affect found